20 causes that block weight loss
When you lose weight, your body defends itself.
It is common to manage to lose a lot of weight at first, without much effort. However, weight loss can slow down or stop altogether fairly quickly.
Icelandic nutritionist Krist Gunnars reports 20 frequent reasons for this phenomenon on his website.
You will also find below her valuable advice for breaking through the glass ceiling and continuing to make progress.
1) Maybe you are losing weight without noticing
If you feel like you've hit a glass ceiling and can't lose more weight, maybe you just need to relax.
It is extremely common for the balance to stabilize for a few days (or weeks). This does NOT mean that you have stopped losing fat.
Bodyweight tends to fluctuate a few pounds at a time. It depends on your diet and your hormones, which have a powerful effect on the amount of water in your body (especially in women).
If you exercise to lose weight, you may also be gaining muscle mass. The phenomenon is particularly strong after the first sessions when you resume regular exercise. Bones also get stronger. They become denser, and therefore also heavier.
These are good things because the goal is to lose fat, not just weight.
It is therefore advisable not only to use the scale to measure your progress. Remember to also measure your waist and thigh, and weigh yourself once a month with a scale that calculates your muscle, fat, and bone content.
Another thing: the way your clothes fit and your impression when looking at yourself in the mirror are very good indications. This can evolve favorably even when your weight is stable. It is then your body that improves.
Morality, unless you've been stuck on the same weight for at least 2 weeks, you probably don't have to worry about anything.
2) You do not record what you ate
Being aware of what you eat is extremely important when trying to lose weight. Many people have no idea what they are really eating.
Studies show that recording what you eat helps you lose weight. It's not about counting calories or even weighing your food. Before you start your plate, put everything you plan to eat on your table, and take a photo with your smartphone. If you can't help but snack on meals (or if healthy snacks like carrots or a handful of almonds are part of your healthy lifestyle to lose weight), also take a picture.
Keep this habit before putting anything in your mouth, including drinks (except water) because they are caloric, sometimes very caloric (fruit juice, alcohol). They act on appetite even when they are at zero percent.
You can of course also write down what you eat in a notebook.
Studies show that just recording or photographing what you eat makes you lose weight faster because you track what you eat much better.
And if your scale does not want to go down anymore, go back to the film of everything you have eaten in the past two weeks. Maybe you won’t be surprised if you don’t lose more pounds.
3) you are not eating enough protein
Protein is the most important nutrient for losing weight.
Eating 20 to 30% protein can increase energy consumption by 80 to 100 calories per day; moreover, automatically, you will eat several hundred calories less per day.
It also greatly reduces cravings and the desire for junk food.
This is explained by the effect of proteins on hormones that regulate appetite, such as ghrelin.
If you are used to breakfast, take the opportunity to eat a lot of protein on this occasion. The traditional English breakfast of eggs, bacon and white beans (rich in vegetable protein) is ideal from this point of view.
You are also guaranteed to have no hollows during the morning, and it is even likely that you will hardly want to eat at noon (traditionally, the English did not have lunch at noon, hence the habit tea at half-past four: "Tea time!").
Eating a lot of protein helps prevent slowing metabolism, a common side effect of weight loss. It also helps to avoid gaining weight.
4) You eat too many calories
Stagnation can have a simple cause: you just eat too many calories.
I do not recommend counting your calories for weight loss. On the other hand, it is important to have a general idea of the subject, in other words, to be able to estimate roughly how much one eats calories per day.
Once a month, therefore, you can calculate for 3 days the number of calories you have eaten. This will give you insight into what you need to stick to the rest of the time. There are many free calorie calculators online on the Internet.
5) You don't eat healthily
The quality of the food is as important as the quantity.
Eating healthy improves health and regulates appetite. Healthy foods tend to fill up faster than junk food, with the same calories.
Remember that many industrial products labeled "organic" are not healthy.
Try to put on your plate only simple foods and as close as possible to their original form.
6) You are not using your muscles
It is important to work your muscles in one way or another, otherwise, your diet will cause you to lose your precious muscle mass while losing excess fat.
Strength training in particular helps prevent slowing metabolism and ensures that your body is truly healthy.
7) You crack too often (even on healthy foods)
During a diet, it is common to want to "crack", which consists of eating large quantities of food very quickly, far in excess of the body's needs.
This is a big problem. The worst is to "crack" on unhealthy foods (chips, Nutella) but cracking on nuts, almonds, cheese or dark chocolate is also terrible.
A single bulimia session can ruin an entire week of well-balanced effort.
8) You don't do endurance
Endurance sports have gained a bad reputation in recent years, but walking, swimming, and running are still the most effective ways to lose visceral fat.
Visceral fat is that which accumulates in the belly, around the organs of the abdomen. It is the most dangerous, the most unhealthy. Getting rid of it is one of the most effective ways to improve your health.
9) You still drink sugar
Sugary drinks are the worst food to get fat in our stores. Our brains don't respond to the calories in sugary drinks to make us eat less of other foods.
This is not only true of sugary drinks like Coca or Orangina. This also applies to energy and vitamin drinks like Vitaminwater which are packed with sugar.
Even fruit juices are a problem. They should never be consumed in large quantities. A single glass contains as much sugar like many fruits (unless you squeeze only one orange, or one apple, which doesn't do much to drink).
10) You don't sleep well
Sleeping poorly deprives you of energy. The body and the brain then seek to compensate for this by providing additional calories, especially in the form of sugar.
Good sleep is one of the most important things to look for for your physical and mental health, as well as for your figure.
Studies show that poor sleep is one of the main risk factors for obesity. Adults and children who sleep poorly have 55% and 89% additional risk of becoming obese, respectively.
11) You have not reduced carbohydrates enough
If you have a lot of weight to lose, or if you have metabolic problems like diabetes or pre-diabetes, then you should consider a low-carb diet.
In short-term studies, this type of diet has shown to lose two to three times more weight than the conventional low-fat diet that is generally recommended.
12) you eat too often
It is a myth that many, but light, meals should be eaten during the day to speed up the metabolism and lose weight.
Studies actually show that the frequency of meals has little or no effect on burning fat or losing weight.
It is also complicated and time consuming to prepare and eat food constantly. It makes the art of healthy eating much more complicated.
On the contrary, intermittent fasting is an extremely effective method of losing weight. The time saved is astonishing, having neither to prepare, nor to eat, nor to clean one's meal. This is to avoid eating for specific periods ranging from 15 to 24 hours or more. You can find information about this in this letter on fasting.
13) You are not drinking enough water
Drinking water can help you lose weight.
In a 12-week study, people who drank half a liter of water half an hour before each meal lost 44% more weight than others.
Drinking water has also been shown to increase calories by 24-30% over an hour and a half.
14) You drink too much alcohol
If you like alcohol and want to lose weight, it's best to drink brandy mixed with a non-caloric drink. Beer, wine, and sugary alcoholic beverages are very high in calories.
The cocktails are the worst of all.
Also remember that the alcohol itself contains 7 calories per gram, which is huge.
That said, studies on alcohol and weight are contradictory. Moderate drinking seems not to be a problem, while alcoholism and heavy alcohol consumption are correlated with weight gain.
15) You don't eat mindfully
A technique called "mindful eating" could be one of the most powerful tools in the world for losing weight.
This involves stopping, sitting at the table, meditating for at least 30 seconds before you start eating, savoring each bite while listening to the natural signs that tell your brain that you have enough eaten.
Many studies have shown that eating mindfully can lead to significant weight loss and reduce binge eating.
Here are some tips for mindful eating:
Eat zero distractions, just you and your food, sitting at a table;
Eat gently and chew carefully. Try to become aware of colors, smells, and textures;
When you feel the signals of satiety, drink a full glass of water, and stop eating.
16) You have a medical problem that makes it difficult
Certain medical conditions can influence weight gain and make it much more difficult to lose weight.
This includes hypothyroidism, polycystic ovary syndrome, and sleep apnea.
Certain medications also make it harder to lose weight, or can even make you fat.
If you think this is your case, discuss the matter with your doctor.
17) you're addicted to junk food
According to a 2014 study, about 19.9% of people meet the criteria for junk food addiction.
People with this junk food problem are in a situation similar to drug addicts.
If you are addicted to junk food, eating less, or changing your diet may seem absolutely impossible. In this case, get help (Naturally Slimming program).
18) You have been too private for too long
It is not necessarily a good idea to go on a diet for too long.
If you've lost weight for several months in a row and you've hit a glass ceiling, then maybe you just need a break.
Increase your calorie intake by a few hundred a day, get more sleep, and do some strength training to gain strength and gain more muscle.
Aim to maintain your body fat for one to two months before you start trying to lose weight again.
19) Your expectations are unrealistic
Losing weight is usually a much slower process than most people think.
Although it is often possible to lose a lot of weight at first, very few people continue to lose weight at the rate of 0.5 to 1 kg per week.
Another major problem is that many people have unrealistic expectations of what it is possible to achieve with a healthy diet and exercise.
The point is, not everyone can look like a model or a bodybuilder.
The photos you see in magazines and on posters are almost always enhanced with Photoshop - nobody literally looks like that.
If you've already lost weight and feel good about yourself, but the scales don't seem to be moving any further, maybe you should start working on accepting your body as it is.
There is a point where your weight will reach a level that corresponds to the comfort zone of your body. Trying to go further is not worth it, and may even be impossible for you.
20) you are too obsessed with the diet
Diets almost never work in the long run. Either way, studies actually show that people who are dieting gain more weight in the long run.
Rather than approaching the problem from a diet perspective, your first goal might be to become a happier, healthier, and fitter person.
Work to nourish your body rather than inflict deprivation on it, and make weight loss a natural (and welcome) side effect!
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